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Geez, talk about uncouth. Being bothered while I'm slaying or laying... ...pisses me off the most!
– Wyald [1]
Wyald (ワイアルド Waiarudo?) was an Apostle who was the leader of the Black Dog Knights. Possessing simian features and abnormal fighting abilities, Wyald was characterized by his carefree personality and intense libertine bloodlust and sexuality.
Appearance
Wyald appeared human at first glance, but actually resembled an ape more than a human. His overall body structure and clothing resembled Zodd's, with a long, jutting face and wide eyes with wild, thick hair and heavy brows. Nude in his first panel, he was shown to be rippling with muscle with a coating of body hair almost resembling actual fur. When going into battle, Wyald donned thick animal skins and pelts alongside armor, including an actual skinned dog as a helm, increasing his brutish appearance.
In his apostle form, his arms fused into his torso as his waist transformed into an ape-like body with a mouth in his "chest" that had a flower-like penile tongue and multiple eyes across his body, one on each shoulder, and one at the fusion of his upper waist and lower neck.
Personality
Wyald was, by all definition, a libertine, always following his motto "Excitement and Enjoyment". He possessed an almost gleeful childlike lust for battle, never taking his fights seriously, such as fighting Guts using only a log. Guts himself commented on his carelessness, that his technique was sloppy and he compensated with his inhuman reflexes. He often put his men in serious danger for the sake of "fun", recklessly charging them through the Falcons traps, killing a soldier beforehand after he protested and massacring them when they lost their morale. Wyald had absolutely no semblance of morality or empathy and took a sadistic pleasure in his actions. He raped and mutilated women, burned children alive, killed his own soldiers mostly for fun, and he stripped Casca naked to humiliate her in front of her own men.
However, when the situation was dire, Wyald lost his usual cocky and playful attitude and became desperate, holding Griffith hostage in order to summon the God Hand to restore him. He later attempted to justify his actions to Nosferatu Zodd, who quickly killed him for endangering the one destined to be a God Hand.
Abilities
Wyald had an unbelievable amount of strength, as he was capable of crushing one of his men's skulls with only two fingers, punched a falling boulder into pieces, stopped Guts' sword with his teeth, and ripped a tree apart with his hands. He also had superhuman reflexes and speed, being able to parry/block all of Guts' attacks with ease using a simple log and being able to impale a monster at speeds faster than the eye can see. Though he was not skilled, his apostle abilities made up for this to the point he could overwhelm more experienced and skilled opponents. Although not adept in military strategy, he knew how to use psychological fear to the point he was able to intimidate his hardened criminal soldiers. Wyald was able to capture Casca, who is known for using her agility with ease.
While he was already immensely powerful and agile in his human form, his demon form presented a massive boost in his basic abilities to the point where he could take out dozens of armed men with a tree trunk. His attacks also proved strong enough to break Guts' large sword.
Story
Golden Age Arc
Very little is known about Wyald's life before he became an apostle, other than that he was a small frail old man who presumably regretted not living the life that he wanted. At some point after becoming an apostle, he was taken prisoner, though how he was able to be captured despite being superhuman is unknown. It was this imprisonment which led him to meet the King of Midland, who ordered all able bodied prisoners to be assembled and drafted into war. Wyald volunteered as leader of this new army, claiming that he was the strongest and the position was his by right. An enormous man known as Barbo the armor hacker approached to challenge his claim and the two fought to the death for the right of leadership. In order to earn the fear and respect of the other convicts, Wyald killed him in a spectacular fashion; by impaling him on the spike of a tower. Wyald and his army of convicts, named the "Black Dog Knights," gained an infamous reputation for being the most cruel and barbarous army in all of Midland, as their habit of instigating atrocities caused them to be banished to the outskirts of Midland away from the King's sight.
Wyald appears before Guts
When the Band of the Falcon rescued Griffith and escorted him out of Wyndham, the King ordered the Black Dog Knights to hunt them down. Though Wyald was reluctant to carry out the task, he changes his mind upon hearing the king's wish for Griffith to die. In pursuit of the Falcons, Wyald's group comes across a farm that aided the Falcons, having all the residents slaughtered and the women raped. When the Black Dogs came in contact with the Falcons, they fell victim to many of the Falcons' traps, with only Wyald and a few of his men continuing after them before the pursuit turned into a full on battle against Guts.
Wyald transforms before Guts and the Band of the Falcon
After realizing his men were outmatched, and killing them indiscriminately when morale fell, Wyald decided to assume his true form. After a long and brutal fight against Guts, Wyald is critically wounded and presumed dead with the scouts guarding the corpse. However, Wyald was feigning death and kills the scouts before crawling to the Falcons' camp and taking Griffith hostage, intending to start the Eclipse early to save his own life. After destroying the Falcons' morale by stripping Griffith down to reveal the full extent of the torture inflicted upon him, Wyald panics, unable to find Griffith's Beherit. He is then impaled on the horns of Zodd, who intervenes to ensure that Griffith arrives at the destined time and place of the Eclipse. Wyald begs for mercy, justifying that he was only following the God Hand's one law of "Do as thou wilt". Zodd rebuts that to be his reason to kill Wyald for endangering Griffith, ripping his stomach open. Now dead, Wyald's spiritual essence is dragged into the Abyss with his body being reduced to that of the old man he used to be.
Notes
- Wyald has not appeared in either the animated series or the movie series. Because of his omission, the destruction of Guts' sword during this particular part of the Golden Age arc isn't explored either. However, the silhouette of an apostle that looks nearly identical to Wyald's apostle form can be seen among the apostles gathered at the Eclipse before the Sacrifice begins in the 1997 version anime.
- Wyald's first adaptation appearance finally occurs in the video game adaptation Berserk and the Band of the Hawk.
- Wyald speaks several English phrases in the game, notably his creed "Enjoy and Excite!" and the calls of his Apostle Attacks.
- Wyald is the first apostle that Guts successfully defeats, although not the first one he fought.
References
- ^ Berserk :: Volume 11, "Roar of the Mad Beast"
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